This invention relates to a front body structure of a motor vehicle.
The front body of the motor vehicle is provided in front of a passenger room to have a function of attaching mainly an engine and a front wheel suspension system. The front body is also provided with fenders forming the appearance design of front wheels.
A previously known front body structure has fenders with a new design and a shock absorbing function (for example, Patent Reference 1).
Patent Reference 1: JP-A-9-2327 (page 4, FIG. 3).
Referring to FIG. 6, an explanation will be given of the front body structure disclosed in Patent Reference 1.
FIG. 6 is a view for explaining the basic configuration of a prior art. A conventional front body structure 101 includes a reinforcement member 103 secured to a framework 102, a front fender panel 104 and hood 105 provided to the outside of the reinforcement member 103 (having a side wall 106), and a head lamp 107 arranged on the front end of the hood 105. A secant line 108 is formed by the edge of the side wall 106 of the hood 105 and the edge of the front fender 105. By forming the secant line 108 on the same line as the edge of the front pillar 109, new accent can be made. The shocking load applied to the upper portion of the front end of the hood 105 in a direction of arrow A can be absorbed by the reinforcement member 103.
In the front body structure disclosed in Patent Reference 1, however, when a downward pressing load is applied to the corner 112 of the front end of the hood 105 in a direction of arrow B, the corner 112 is likely to be deformed because it is not supported by the reinforcement member 103. Even if the corner 112 is formed by extending the front fender panel 104, it is likely to be deformed. Particularly, if the head lamp 107 is designed to be rounded at the corner of a vehicle body, otherwise the corner 112 located above the head lamp 107 is formed in a rounded design, it is difficult to directly support the corner 112 by the reinforcement member 103 and radiator support member (bulk head) 113, thereby making it difficult to assure the rigidity of the corner 112. However, if the thickness of the plate forming the corner 112 is increased, the weight of the corner 112 increases, thereby increasing the production cost.